Originally Posted by
TravelDream
While I agree it makes more sense, often it will work out a lot more expensive than flying return flights to Tokyo.
Especially if someone has a discount economy fare.
Also, a lot of people book flights and then work out a detailed itinerary.
Though I agree that a wiki sticky on the rail pass would be very useful.
One way in which a rail pass may be advantageous, even if the traveler has booked an open-jaw NRT/KIX flight, is if he or she plans to use both Tokyo and a city in Kansai (Osaka or Kyoto, usually) as a base for extensive day trips.
From Tokyo, I've taken day trips to Mito, Nagano, Mashiko, Sendai and Matsushima, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Nikko, and Hakone.
From Kyoto, I've taken day trips to Nara, Himeji, Kobe, Osaka, Yoshino, Tamba-Sasayama, Takayama, Muryoji, Uji, Kurashiki, and Hikone.
In all my years of visiting Japan, I have not yet exhausted the possible day trips from either city.
In 2012, I took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Hiroshima the day after arrival--on the Hikari, so I had to get off at Shin-Osaka and walk across the platform to the Hiroshima-bound train that came along five minutes later-- in order to attend a conference, but I took the long way back, involving a circle tour of Shikoku. The Japan Rail Pass made this feasible and easy.